Measuring patient temperature is a common first step in diagnosing illnesses. Physicians commonly use a variety of methods for determining patient temperature including, for example, obtaining temperature measurements with a thermometer. While thermometers utilizing mercury have been in existence for many years, modern thermometers typically employ one or more electronic sensors configured to measure patient temperature. Such sensors may take one or more measurements over a relatively short period of time. Based on these measurements, the thermometer may generate an estimated internal and/or core temperature of the patient. In generating this estimated core temperature, it is common practice to insert at least a portion of the thermometer into a cover prior to taking temperature measurements. The cover may overlay the electronic temperature sensor of the thermometer, and may protect the sensor from contamination during use.
Determining core temperature in this way may, however, be difficult depending on the age and/or physical characteristics of the patient. For example, while standard thermometers and covers may be sized for insertion into an average adult ear canal, such instruments may not be suitable for use with patients having ear canals that have dimensions different than that of the average adult. In particular, such instruments may be too large for use with infants and pediatric patients having ear canals smaller than the average adult ear canal. Such instruments may also be difficult to use with geriatric patients having partially closed or blocked ear canals. While one solution to these difficulties may be to use thermometers of different sizes and/or configurations for such different patients, physicians may not be in favor of such an approach due to the added cost and inconvenience associated with the use of multiple different thermometers.
The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are directed toward overcoming the deficiencies described above.